Acquisitions were all about prestige this year and Estée Lauder stole the show

\Fragrance player Coty acquired French color cosmetics business Bourjois, Revlon started to feel the positive effects of its Colomer acquisition and L’Oréal acquired the NYX color cosmetics brand.

But it has been Estée Lauder that has been the most active on the acquisition trail this year, thanks to a sustained period of growth and profitability in recent years that has helped to give it sufficient funds to shop for high-end businesses with established reputations.

Back in April, the rumor mill was already in full swing, as we reported in this story, which underlined the fact that the company has built its business in recent years around the acquisition of small but promising brands:

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Business-Financial/Estee-Lauder-on-the-look-out-Ready-to-acquire-if-the-deal-is-right​

Indeed, just a few months later, CFO Tracey Thomas Travis conceded that merger and acquisition activity would be a high priority for the company, and admitted that the company was actively looking for new businesses.

In fact, it was definitely time to get scouting for new additions to the portfolio, as the company had not made an acquisition in over four years, since it bought the Smashbox business in May of 2010.

Over the course of the few months that followed those articles, Estée Lauder announced that it had snapped up three fragrance further businesses, including Rodin olio lusso, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, Le Labo prestige fragrances.

The acquisitions began in October, when the company snapped up Le Labo prestige fragrances, a brand that is known for mixing fragrances on demand, which ties in with the growing trend towards personalized and tailor-made cosmetics and fragrances.

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Business-Financial/Estee-Lauder-acquires-Le-Labo-prestige-fragrances​

Less than a month later, the company announced the acquisition of luxury skin care player Rodin olio lusso, a fragrance line established by Linda Rodin back in 2007 that is based on natural oils.

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Business-Financial/Estee-Lauder-acquires-luxury-skin-care-player-Rodin-olio-lusso​

And just a week after that came the announcement that the company was also buying another luxury fragrance brand,Frédéric Malle, a brand that combines 21 fragrances developed by 12 different perfumers that are distributed in London, Paris and New York.

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Business-Financial/Estee-Lauder-acquiring-fragrance-brand-Editions-de-Parfums-Frederic-Malle​

The financial world has applauded the acquisitions, underlined by comments made by analysts in this article:

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Business-Financial/Estee-Lauder-performance-gets-thumbs-up-from-analysts​

In 2015 we are likely to see further acquisitions in the cosmetics industry, particularly in the luxury and prestige category, but whether or not Estée Lauder is done with its shopping spree remains to be seen.